Chaos Breaks Out at Charlottesville City Council Meeting
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — They shouted down the mayor
and City Council members, took over the Council chambers for about a half-hour, and gave more than four hours of impassioned testimony about how city officials had botched the response to the deadly white supremacist rally here this month.
In the end, the angry residents who spoke at the Charlottesville City Council meeting on Monday got some measure
of action as officials said they would have a third-party review the city’s planning and reaction to the rally.
The meeting started out without incident, but as soon as the rally was mentioned, several residents
began shouting down city officials for allowing the Aug. 12 “Unite the Right” rally to take place.
And we can’t have freedom of speech?”
At one point, two people stood on the dais and unfurled a banner with the words “Blood on your hands!” as council members and the mayor left the room.
That move was significant, as it was the Council’s decision earlier this year to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee
that prompted the white nationalists to rally in the city earlier this month.
